


Tender Care

by AlwaysJohn



Category: Sherlock (TV)
Genre: Comfort, Gen, Love, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-13
Updated: 2020-02-13
Packaged: 2021-02-28 07:00:48
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 815
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22699810
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AlwaysJohn/pseuds/AlwaysJohn
Summary: Six little thoughts that had no need to be more, and a special wish for all.
Relationships: Sherlock Holmes & John Watson
Comments: 9
Kudos: 19





	Tender Care

**Author's Note:**

  * For [notjustmom](https://archiveofourown.org/users/notjustmom/gifts), [scrub456](https://archiveofourown.org/users/scrub456/gifts), [PatPrecieux](https://archiveofourown.org/users/PatPrecieux/gifts).



> Happy Valentine's Day my dear friends. You are always in my heart.

When Sherlock looks at him with such intensity that his breath catches and his heart stutters in his chest, he looks away to steady himself. An elegant finger feathers his lip. John looks up. If eyes are the window to the soul, the sea-green eyes that gaze at him now know all his secrets..

***  
Sherlock returns from the Yard to find John asleep in his chair. Wriggling between John’s knees, he rests his forehead against his doctor’s chest, and his hands on his hips. John sighs, but doesn’t wake. He simply wraps his arms round Sherlock’s head, holding him close and safe.

***  
“The East wind, Sherlock, it’s coming.”

Sherlock wakes to John’s strangled cry. Framing his face with his hands, the detective leans close, pressing a kiss to his mouth.

“The dark clouds are gathering again.”

“John,” Sherlock calls to him, the tremble in his voice foreign to his own ears.

“Run, Sherlock. Run,” John shouts, his eyes now open, but they look past him to a place where Sherlock can not follow. 

John’s hands clamp over his shoulders, strong enough to bruise, and his chest heaves with the terror only he can see. 

“It’s all right, John, I’m here with you. It’s a nightmare,” Sherlock tells him in the calmest tone he owns.

At the sound of that voice, John focuses on him, throws his arms around Sherlock’s neck.

“Don’t go,” John whimpers, clinging to him until peace slowly surrounds them once more.

“I won’t, I promise.”

Sherlock holds him, wishing he could take this residual fear as his own. As John’s trembling fades, and he sleeps once more, Sherlock gathers him closer, protecting him in the cocoon of his own body.

***  
“Because of you I have all this love inside me. Love for you. I don’t know if there is room for anyone else.”

Sherlock’s expression, childlike in its perfection, makes John’s own heart fill to the brim with love.

John smiles the smile he saves for this man alone. “When you truly love someone, Sherlock, your heart always has room for more.”

***  
John waits at the window. The cab pulls up to the kerb and Sherlock steps out, pays the fare, and as he turns toward the door, he pauses, looking up, as though he knows John is there. He disappears from view, the door downstairs opens and closes. Whispered footsteps, two at a time, gain the landing. 

Heart racing in his chest, John turns. Sherlock is there, closing the distance between them. His long arms are around him, holding him in a warm embrace, cradling his head with one hand, the other resting at his hip, pulling him close.

Sherlock is home and all is well and good.

***  
Just after midnight he slips beneath the duvet. John lies on his side facing the opposite side of the bed, his hand resting on Sherlock’s pillow. A whispered apology for returning so late doesn’t wake John, but takes the edge off some of the guilt he feels. 

“Sherlock?”

The sleepy whisper of his name is the soothing balm for which he has yearned since before dawn when he left his injured partner behind.

John reaches for him, curling his smaller self into the warmth of his body, nuzzling into his neck. Sherlock’s upside down world rights itself as he gathers John to his chest. 

“Shh, everything is okay now, go back to sleep.”

***  
It has been a very long day for Dr John Watson as he makes a slow, weary ascent to the flat. At the first landing, a familiar aroma reaches him, hurrying him the rest of the way.

One step through the door, John comes to a full stop. There are candles everywhere. Anatomically correct hearts hang from the ceiling. John giggles at the sight. “Only you, Sherlock,” he tells the unoccupied sitting room.

“John? You’re home. I didn’t hear you arrive.”

“You’ve been decorating,” he says, barely disguising another giggle.

Sherlock intertwines their fingers and leads him to the kitchen where he has set an elaborate table. In this room, more hearts, these in their usual, artistic form adorn the walls and cupboard doors. John is certain the thing with the peas is waiting in the oven and there is wine and a heart-shaped cake.

John gestures toward the oven. “Is that?”

“The thing with the peas, yes.”

“All this, for me?”

“For us. You haven’t been yourself the last few days and I wanted to let you know how much I love you.”

“You love me?”

“You’re being deliberately obtuse. Of course I love you.”

This is a verbal dance they’ve played many times. “Since when?” 

And Sherlock always plays along, “Since always.”

“Always?”

“Yes, John, always.”

John’s eyes prickle, a tear escaping to his cheek. Sherlock’s eyes are too bright for there to be anything other than tears present.

“Happy Valentine’s Day,” they whisper against each other’s lips.

**Author's Note:**

> Happy Valentine's Day to all.


End file.
